The Album Review Club - Week #216 (page 1412) - Together Alone - Crowded House

threespires said:
Haha I wonder if the human brain could cope with a Kusama/Angine De Poitrine collaboration?

I have no art education other than books I've read myself and doing a bit of gallery bothering, which probably explains why 99% of time time I have no idea what I am on about. Foggy's point about liking what you like in part due to a lack of knowledge of what else is out there, may very well apply to me when it comes to painting; though the art world has a degree of curation absent in the music world that stops it being a direct comparison. I've seen plenty of art that has caused me to exhale but I've only ever seen two pieces that have stopped me completely dead in my tracks, the first was Antonello Da Messina's Virgin Annunciate which was 100% a spiritual experience and the second was Rothko's Seagram Murals. I had no interest in the Colour Field movement and many years previously had actually taken the piss out of a friend who used to go on about Rothko; until the moment I experienced some of them for myself. I've seen them both in the Tate and the National in Washington on more than one occasion and I could happily sit with them for hours at a time and not see or feel the exact same thing.

Last few years I've taken to doing more DIY, including a bit of basic plumbing, to get outside of my head a bit more. I'm going to have a crack at doing a shower enclosure from scratch in June; wish me (and the subfloor) luck!
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I guess seeing them on a small screen isn't as impactful as seeing in person. I tend to get rushed through galleries and museums as my kids like to "complete" them rather than contemplate them
 
mrbelfry said:
This is not the aim or point of this album. I think the point is the transcendence thing - noise and clarity. If they haven't been successful at that then that's how you might judge the merits or otherwise of the album.
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Then they are going for what Gregorian monks were going for. And therefore, it’s an ambient. Definitionally, ambient records have fewer points to make, or a simpler intent, except for “Another Green World”, because it was (in a pop context) first, at least IMO (others would say it’s “Music For Airports”). Seen with this lens, it’s not as bad as I thought, but it’s more trivial.
 
threespires said:
I don't really have a dog in this fight because I'm not a great fan but I'd say in terms of the 'what' (with a huge 'eye of the beholder' caveat) on a number of the tracks it strikes me they're looking to evoke a sense of anxiety and/or trippy disorientation perhaps even agitation often seemingly about love and intimacy but then they punctuate this with a bit of optimism and defiance too like on souvenir. Some tracks I'll admit I have no idea what they're trying to achieve and something like milk of the madonna tbh sounds pretty vacuous to me. I'm not really in a place in my life that too much of this resonates with me personally but equally it doesn't strike me as having a misery porn vibe in the same way that..ahem..certain other albums might.
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If I’m gonna be anxious, I want things to be anxious ABOUT. War, what is it good for?

But I am reaching the same conclusion as you in re: lack of specificity. Thing is, these guys have been around forever. THEY should be in a place in life where this doesn’t resonate either. Which makes it all the lamer . . . or more cynical, if you go down the path you hint at.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Then they are going for what Gregorian monks were going for. And therefore, it’s an ambient. Definitionally, ambient records have fewer points to make, or a simpler intent, except for “Another Green World”, because it was (in a pop context) first, at least IMO (others would say it’s “Music For Airports”). Seen with this lens, it’s not as bad as I thought, but it’s more trivial.
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Still not sure everything needs a point. Sometimes it's enough to create a mood or a feeling. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding you which is probable.
 
mrbelfry said:
Still not sure everything needs a point. Sometimes it's enough to create a mood or a feeling. Unless I'm totally misunderstanding you which is probable.
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A point is better than no point, and intent is better than no intent, but no point puts pressure on the songs — or if not songs, sounds — to reflect intent. You’ve explained what you think the intent is. And that may be so. But my counter is these song-sounds don’t make me feel how they’re intended to make me feel if you’re right, and without a point, makes the record a failure.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
A point is better than no point, and intent is better than no intent, but no point puts pressure on the songs — or if not songs, sounds — to reflect intent. You’ve explained what you think the intent is. And that may be so. But my counter is these song-sounds don’t make me feel how they’re intended to make me feel if you’re right, and without a point, makes the record a failure.
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Ok the Four Seasons evokes a feeling of annual passage of time. But does the 9th Symphony really have any real point?

Sometimes music is just music, and the mood is just the mood.

And it is up to you to fill in the blanks or make of that what you will. Like all art really. The inability to do so is as much a failure of the listener as it is the creator.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
A point is better than no point, and intent is better than no intent, but no point puts pressure on the songs — or if not songs, sounds — to reflect intent. You’ve explained what you think the intent is. And that may be so. But my counter is these song-sounds don’t make me feel how they’re intended to make me feel if you’re right, and without a point, makes the record a failure.
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I can only speak to what I think the intent is. @threespires suggested another. Both or neither may be true. And I'm still not sure what you mean by something having a point. Give us an example to clarify. Does a song like Stacey's Mom by FoW have a point? If so is it one worth stating? Is it worth stating if there even is no Stacey?
 
Coatigan said:
And it is up to you to fill in the blanks or make of that what you will. Like all art really. The inability to do so is as much a failure of the listener as it is the creator.
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Ummmmm . . . . Horseshit.

As to the rest of your post, we’ve established this is “mood music”. IMO it fails in creating the mood it intends. You think it doesn’t. Fair enough.
 
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mrbelfry said:
I can only speak to what I think the intent is. @threespires suggested another. Both or neither may be true. And I'm still not sure what you mean by something having a point. Give us an example to clarify. Does a song like Stacey's Mom by FoW have a point? If so is it one worth stating? Is it worth stating if there even is no Stacey?
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Stacey’s Mom is funny and ironic. So it makes me laugh and wince on the protagonist’s behalf. That’s true of lots of songs on that record actually. Songs capture the artist’s feelings or opinions about things and convey them with notes and words. The vaguer the music, the less I know what an artist’s point of view is.
 
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mrbelfry said:
So it essentially prompts an emotional response. Same as Private Music but using different tools to create a different emotion
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Yes. Except the emotional response it provoked in me was revulsion and embarrassment on their behalf for their puerile lyrics and dork-fingered guitar and drums. Similar to how OKC created an emotional response of anger at the artist’s hypocrisy, cynicism and pomposity.
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
Yes. Except the emotional response it provoked in me was revulsion and embarrassment on their behalf for their puerile lyrics and dork-fingered guitar and drums. Similar to how OKC created an emotional response of anger at the artist’s hypocrisy, cynicism and pomposity.
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All legitimate responses :) it's too sad a day for arguing
 
Coatigan said:
Change the theme to songs of farewell anyone?
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I've currently moved from denial but only as far as completely unreasonable and juvenile levels of bitterness that we aren't getting one more year. So at the moment I'd probably end up nominating that Beyonce song "'to the left, everything you own in a box to the left"; probably best I wait a day or two at which point I'll probably nominate that song Nat King Cole recorded for the Aero campaign.
 
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